ASF Rats

I picked up a breeding colony of 12 ASF rats today. I'll like to hear some raw feedback about these little guys as feeders. The good, bad and ugly.

Personally, as cute as they are....i think they're stalking me....lol....they don't back down...and LOOK, they're talking about me...i just know it!! LOL

erm, forgot the "stalking" photo sorry

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...asf4_thumb.jpg

Im about to get a colony tomorrow. im going 2.8 I think though. Plus I need some as feeders for the next few months... From what I read they are the way to go.

WellyBelly...I was having a VERY hard time finding them....the person that breeds rabbits for our burms had gotten about 50 of them....so we took a colony of hers....personally, I really do like them....the cats on the other hand, have their doubts....lol

We have a colony of them and likely will start a second breeding trio shortly. I do like them for very specific purposes but feed the majority of our snakes from our regular rat colony. The ASF's serve a purpose with our WC adult rescues and a few particularily picky feeders who seem to take them with more consistent responses. Due to issues of prey imprinting, we won't be offering ASF's to any hatchlings we produce unless a customer requested that's what they wanted a snake eating.

Watch your fingers around ASF's. The adults don't play when it comes to protecting their offspring and will nail you if they get half a chance. They are also champion chewers and hard as hades to catch if they get loose. On the upside they are easy to care for, have basically no natural odor and breed like crazy.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

We have a colony of them and likely will start a second breeding trio shortly. I do like them for very specific purposes but feed the majority of our snakes from our regular rat colony. The ASF's serve a purpose with our WC adult rescues and a few particularily picky feeders who seem to take them with more consistent responses. Due to issues of prey imprinting, we won't be offering ASF's to any hatchlings we produce unless a customer requested that's what they wanted a snake eating.

Watch your fingers around ASF's. The adults don't play when it comes to protecting their offspring and will nail you if they get half a chance. They are also champion chewers and hard as hades to catch if they get loose. On the upside they are easy to care for, have basically no natural odor and breed like crazy.

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Yeah, found that out quickly...never "coochy coo" an ASF....LOL....i heard about their chewing and have everything under the sun to keep them occupied...found these VERY HARD all natural corn blocks that they adore!!!...with all of them on it, it's still holding up with the mere edges chewed....expensive...but if they work on keeping them occupied...it's worth it

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Originally Posted by OhBalls

Yeah, found that out quickly...never "coochy coo" an ASF....LOL....i heard about their chewing and have everything under the sun to keep them occupied...found these VERY HARD all natural corn blocks that they adore!!!...with all of them on it, it's still holding up with the mere edges chewed....expensive...but if they work on keeping them occupied...it's worth it

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lol
do you got that on video! youd probally win on funniest videos,

ASF's are great. I have 5 1.4 colonies set up...I have one litter and about 5 preggo girls...They are really easy to take care of, active at night and chew everything they can. Use glass waterbottles and wood blocks in their tanks. They really don't smell even after 2 weeks...

I'm in contact with a guy about getting a few. One quick question though, if I have 10 snakes how many females would you recommend me getting?

I have a trio right now...................they seem to be pretty easy to care for!

also these water bottles seem to work so far..............no chews as of yet

http://www.petco.com/product/5415/LM...er-Bottle.aspx

but this is just a week of experience for me

I agree :) Mine run boldly up to the front of their tank whenever I refill their food bowl. They are bold little boogers.

I'm going to try them out as soon as I find some down here in miami.

Too bad you aren't closer Emilio, I've got loads of ready to wean ASF's just sitting around. :)

The only problem I'm having right now with mine is the darn momma ASF's parking their litters in the empty food bowls. Then I go to feed them and have to scoot away the protective adults and gently dump their babies out of the "asf playpens". LOL

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Too bad you aren't closer Emilio, I've got loads of ready to wean ASF's just sitting around. :)

The only problem I'm having right now with mine is the darn momma ASF's parking their litters in the empty food bowls. Then I go to feed them and have to scoot away the protective adults and gently dump their babies out of the "asf playpens". LOL

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asf playpen...that is just too funny!

we had a nice surprise when we checked on them today....babies!!! not sure how many, I didn't want to chance another finger.....we have another mother-to-be...hopefully she'll deliver soon too

cure little buggars too! :)

ASF rat babies = world's oooooogliest baby animal LOL

I got my first ASFs last winter and i LOVE them ...got 3 trios kept one gave one Larry and one to a buddy of mine that runs a local pet store becuase im HORRIBLE with rodents LOL but atleast i always know where i can get some when im out !!
Larry is a rodent god and he i know back in summer and fall everytime i would go over he would literally have 100s of them weaned out...and its also neat watching the different type of animals that will pop out from time to time Ive got a small grp of albinos im keeping atm
And I love starting babys on ASFs whenever i can because ive noticed they will generally switch directly over to normal rats with no hesitation
And for the bitiness...if you want some tame ASFs take babies and put them with a mother rat...its amazin how different they turn out!
They also tame down somewhat with a few genrerations of breeding.

The morning after I posted this, one of the females dropped a litter of 7 (from what i could count without being nicknamed "stubby")....next day another female dropped

they put ALL the babies together and moms take turns feeding....when they leave the nest box to eat, the rest of the colony goes into the hide and sits on the babies and protects them....I'm in awe of these little guys....something tells me I'm going to be bitten more than once HA!

The thing that really impresses me is...we've have them for several days now....12 in one VERY large tank...they've had 2 litters so far and there is absolutely NO STINK....nothing!

I do think we have too many for the BP's we have.....something tells me I'll need more snakes to keep up...:banana:

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Originally Posted by Gib

And for the bitiness...if you want some tame ASFs take babies and put them with a mother rat...its amazin how different they turn out!

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What an interesting idea, Gib. When do you foster them over to the regular rat female? Does she need to be lactating? I assume you wouldn't want any of her own litter in there with the fostered ASF's. What age for the ASF's for foster works best? Can it just be an old retired female that sort of just acts as an "auntie" rat to them or do you need that mothering bond with a nursing female?

Okay can you tell yet I'm a bit excited about this idea! :D

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

ASF rat babies = world's oooooogliest baby animal LOL

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the way the new babies hair stands straight up,reminds me of don king.

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Originally Posted by twh

the way the new babies hair stands straight up,reminds me of don king.

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I like the babies with the thin, stand-up hair the best. So ugly they're cute.


http://jeffflanagan.net/ouroboros/Pi...B]DSCF2594.JPG

so has anyone noticed a difference, as far as snakes prefernce goes ?? i have no clue, im just wondeirng if Dude would refuse and ASF when hes so used to the albino lookin things hes been eating all his life ??

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Originally Posted by mikeamy2007

so has anyone noticed a difference, as far as snakes prefernce goes ?? i have no clue, im just wondeirng if Dude would refuse and ASF when hes so used to the albino lookin things hes been eating all his life ??

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i had a picky eater....i gave her some ASF and now shes a beast.......but now it seems she'll eat anything...she wouldn't take regular rats, now she pounds them.....try to figure that out! i think she thinks a asf is coming....so she strikes and grabs anything that moves.....including my hand!

I've gotten two very picky captive bred eaters slamming down food by offering ASF's. Also an adult w/c female that had refused to eat for quite a while is now a healthy and still gaining, 1,600 grams. :)

I have a VERY picky eater, I have tried everything, than I started looking for ASF and sure enough 5 seconds with an ASF cured a 179 days fast.

I definitely looking forward to produce enough to try those on my mousers and see if they will switch.

I have two adult WC females that only eat maybe once a month. I've had them for almost two years and they are thin.

I've tried everything imaginable to get them to eat weekly but they're only eating enough to stay alive.....then I bought some ASFs... .... and I think that is the answer to my WC balls not eating. These snakes are pounding those ASFs like they're going out of style... or maybe they're just hungry. :banana::banana::banana:

From our experience the two WC adult female BP's we took in feed much better on the ASF's then anything else we tried with them. We can occasionally sneak in a regular rat but usually when I try I get a disgusted snake look that pretty much says..."hey stupid human, where is my tasty ASF!" :D

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Originally Posted by JeffFlanagan

I like the babies with the thin, stand-up hair the best. So ugly they're cute.


http://jeffflanagan.net/ouroboros/Pi...B]DSCF2594.JPG

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This cracked me up. They are ugly little boogers for sure. :rofl:

ASF's are definitely great to breed. like others have said, they're very low-odor. after awhile they kind of smell "rodent-y" but they don't get that really dirty ammonia smell like mice do. at work i clean the feeder mouse cage and it absolutely REEKS again within 2 days. ASF's can have really large litters too, i think the biggest i've seen with my colonies so far is 18. \

it sucks that they're nippy, because i've COMPLETELY forgotten to put a glove on before sticking my hand in...and when you have a colony of 1.4 with 4 angry mothers...let's just say you'll be bleeding. i actually had one latch on to my pinky and not let go; she was actually flung right out of the cage when i pulled my hand back from the ambush of other bites!!! the worst part was, after that i had to go CATCH her and got bit a couple more times. so i haven't forgotten my glove after that!

oh, and to the OP, you think YOUR ASF's are stalking you? check out this pic:

http://i973.photobucket.com/albums/a...st21-29006.jpg

Katia I LOVE those dark eared ASFs! I have 3 separate bloodlines with hundreds of rats and not one of the little buggers has anything but pink ears. I need to find a few of those guys so I can do some selective breeding... ;-)

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Originally Posted by katia

oh, and to the OP, you think YOUR ASF's are stalking you? check out this pic:

http://i973.photobucket.com/albums/a...st21-29006.jpg

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WOW that is incredibly cute!

when those little buggers start biting that biting must make it easier to feed them off, or freeze.

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Originally Posted by mikeamy2007

so has anyone noticed a difference, as far as snakes prefernce goes ?? i have no clue, im just wondeirng if Dude would refuse and ASF when hes so used to the albino lookin things hes been eating all his life ??

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I have a male bee that would only eat one mouse a week, until the ASFs. He loves ASFs.... I alternate mice, rats and ASFs with my hatchings and have not had any decide they only wanted ASFs.

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Originally Posted by WIpythonGUY

when those little buggers start biting that biting must make it easier to feed them off, or freeze.

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I must have the ONLY nice ASFs out there. I can reach in the pile-o-babies any time I want and have never been nipped. I pick them up and a few actually sit still and let me pet their heads.

These guys were great...I had a Colombian that refused rats she would eat mice but not rats...and she's 5.5 feet long! It was ridiculous. Then I ran across a breeder of soft furs, I fed her one soft fur and after that she goes for every single rat. And now, she's all muscle, you can't get her off without several other people cause she holds one so tight. My Dumeril's isn't sure what to think though, he stared down a soft fur for half an hour before eating it.

ASF Rats are the best thing since sliced bread.
I am so glad to have started to breed and feed them.
My snakes love it!!! :banana:

They are devil rats....

I hate them! I think I'm the only one who doesn't like them! I have had non stop problems with these guys. Chewing, escaping, the babies can get out of everything, and my cat hates them too. He ate at least 25 of them in one night!!! I just can't get ahead with these guys. They waste food like there is no tomorrow and I think they reek (compared to rats IMO). Just one trio of ASFs waste more food in one day than all of my rats eat; eat, not waste. :taz:

Rant over :D I know people love them, but I'm not one of them! The only good thing about them is that they have enormous litters 17-18. I have one trio left with 17 babies out of 100+ I had about a month ago, thanks to chewing, escaping, and my cat. I guess I'm thankful for him, lol. And if you are wondering what happened to the other 50 or so, my cat ate them too :rolleyes: He's also the reason why I can't have birds.

This is my last trio, and the only thing that has kept them in! You can't have a single tiny crack or your ASFs are out. I would suggest a tank set up or really really tight tubs! (The dog food is to see if they can get it through the hardwired cloth, they have rodent block in the tub)
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...rats/003-2.jpg

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Originally Posted by SlitherinSisters

They are devil rats....

I hate them! I think I'm the only one who doesn't like them! I have had non stop problems with these guys. Chewing, escaping, the babies can get out of everything, and my cat hates them too. He ate at least 25 of them in one night!!! I just can't get ahead with these guys. They waste food like there is no tomorrow and I think they reek (compared to rats IMO). Just one trio of ASFs waste more food in one day than all of my rats eat; eat, not waste. :taz:

Rant over :D I know people love them, but I'm not one of them! The only good thing about them is that they have enormous litters 17-18. I have one trio left with 17 babies out of 100+ I had about a month ago, thanks to chewing, escaping, and my cat. I guess I'm thankful for him, lol. And if you are wondering what happened to the other 50 or so, my cat ate them too :rolleyes: He's also the reason why I can't have birds. (I opened the door to my snake/rat room so he could take care of the escapees since I'm done with them)

This is my last trio, and the only thing that has kept them in! You can't have a single tiny crack or your ASFs are out. I would suggest a tank set up or really really tight tubs! (The dog food is to see if they can get it through the hardwired cloth, they have rodent block in the tub)
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...rats/003-2.jpg

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Dang it! Sorry mods :(

I'm a big fan of ASFs, I have three trios running right now, and one tank has at least 30 babies in it, haha. They're cute, and I've trained one trio to beg for treats. They breed like crazy and they're just amazing. They don't smell at all compared to my mice. They even seem to eat less than my mice, or at least waste less.
However, they chew out of tubs for me no matter what, even though they have hide boxes and wheels and PVC tubes and wood blocks, so mine are in tanks.

I have been breeding them for almost a year now, and I have only came across one female that was a biter. Regardless if I'm feeding them or handling their young I have had no problems at all. I would confidently recommend them no problems at all. Saying that my one biter was evil, but she soon got chapped on the head.

I love 'em. Even the bigger ones are small enough for the subadult balls, and I started breeding them in order to get the picky het balls to start eating again. The ASFs don't stink near as fast/often as mice and my "fancy" rats get too big before the snake is eating regularly. I have one BP that is soooooo timid, if I gave her a regular rat, it had to be a live crawler or she ignores it, and then it's too big the next time she eats.

The BIG crapper is the ASFs chew thru all my water bottles. I've been switching to glass bottles, but my ASFs are in GLASS tanks, and the glass bottles are specifically designed for wire cages, so I'm having to become more creative with hooks/suspension.

I'm about ready to switch to mortar tubs, or the cambro busboy tubs in the rack, but even the fancies chewed thru some of those, and I REAAAAAALLY don't want ASFs to escape, so I haven't tried 'em yet.

I'm glad more animals take up less room, but feeding 9 ASF each feeding, I need some more breeding groups, and have to get the logistics figured out for that.

BTW, just don't inbreed too much. (More than 2-3x). I did and ended up with 'em being susceptible to and developing the papilloma warts, and have to do a change-up w/ my groups.

Even so...beware....they BITE! and WILL defend their babies by coming AFTER you. :D

I love my ASF's. I have a 1.3 ratio. None have dropped babies yet but i feel there within weeks from doing so. Mine are a little on the nippy side. None have full out bit me though. Ill change out food and they run up and i can feel there teeth touch my skin but not biting down. I havnt had an issue with them chewing out of my tub. I use a big 90 or 100tq sterilite container with the green latch top. They chew on there igloo hide, food bowls, and paper towl rolls. The hide and bowls are thick enough not to care about though. They like to waiste those damn lab blocks. I know that much. I watched one pull 8 of them out of a food bowl just so it could lay in the bowl. Lol. It was cute to watch. They seem to eat just about all there seeds and whatever they spill, they usually end up eating it off the substrate when they run out through the night. They seem to like Purina Cat Food and ground up Pig Feed. Lol.

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Originally Posted by SnakeKB

I love my ASF's. I have a 1.3 ratio. None have dropped babies yet but i feel there within weeks from doing so. Mine are a little on the nippy side. None have full out bit me though. Ill change out food and they run up and i can feel there teeth touch my skin but not biting down. I havnt had an issue with them chewing out of my tub. I use a big 90 or 100tq sterilite container with the green latch top. They chew on there igloo hide, food bowls, and paper towl rolls. The hide and bowls are thick enough not to care about though. They like to waiste those damn lab blocks. I know that much. I watched one pull 8 of them out of a food bowl just so it could lay in the bowl. Lol. It was cute to watch. They seem to eat just about all there seeds and whatever they spill, they usually end up eating it off the substrate when they run out through the night. They seem to like Purina Cat Food and ground up Pig Feed. Lol.

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I had a male that just nipped at ya but once they started having litters, that little nip turned into a full force BITE. I just give him a good little flick to the dome when he starts wandering towards my hand:gj:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

I've gotten two very picky captive bred eaters slamming down food by offering ASF's. Also an adult w/c female that had refused to eat for quite a while is now a healthy and still gaining, 1,600 grams. :)

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My pickiest are the het females. Now that one has been eating ASFs regularly for a while, I'm going to see if I can switch her back to rats, and then eventually back to FT. The other, she kept refusing even the littlest ASFs, but two nights ago, ate 2 live rat (very chubby) fuzzies. So maybe I can get HER back to rats, and then FT. I'm going to start breeding the pets again for foodie babies, since before, the babies were growing faster than the snakes would eat them and I had too many. We'll see how it goes..if I can get her Poopy Highness :mad::rolleyes: to keep eating and start regaining the weight back.

Check out Mike's post about feeding the 16% protein hog feed. I used to feed the lab blocks to the ASFs too, and got tired of the waste and the expense (esp. after losing my job). A 50# bag of the hog feed is $11, and lasts MUCH longer than the $21.99 25# of blocks, even when dumping the hog feed on the substrate. I used to feed in bowls, but they just toss it around, so I now use the crocks for something else, and the blocks are for the pets and foodie fancies.

I feed a local feed stores Ground Pig Feed. Same as the Country Acres hog feed but its made 1st hand by the feed store owner. 100 lb bag is $10. I usually get a 5qt ice cream pale and fill that and they charge me by the lb. 10lb of feed is $1. So so cheap. Im gonna try there bird seed as well. Think its $10 for 25lb bag. They dont make there own bird seed though. The ASF's tear up some parakeet seed i know that much. So does my hamster. Lol. I think im gonna try making some sort of hopper for them so they dont make near the mess.

i feed my ASF's Step 2 Extruded horse feed. it's $14 CAD for a 50lb bag. i've had the same bag since march and i still have about half of it. i wouldn't suggest buying a big bag of this unless you have somewhere to store it (i have ours in a deep freeze) or tons and tons and tons of rats that will go through it quickly. the rats seem to be doing excellent on it, great litter sizes (13+ pups per litter)

here's the link: http://www.purityfeed.com/pop/detail...=BAFHORSTEP2EX

I've never fed an ASF to my snakes but I do have two snakes that have been off feed for 3 months and at this point I am willing to try anything but....are these ASF's dangerous to feed to your snake live - I would hate for the ASF to attack my snake.

Whats the proper way to feed an ASF live to your snake.

Thanks

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Originally Posted by L.West

I've never fed an ASF to my snakes but I do have two snakes that have been off feed for 3 months and at this point I am willing to try anything but....are these ASF's dangerous to feed to your snake live - I would hate for the ASF to attack my snake.

Whats the proper way to feed an ASF live to your snake.

Thanks

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We feed ASFs live. Make sure the ASFs are well fed and watered. I feed on a separate feeding tank because I have this heavily decorated tanks for my bps with lots of nooks and crannies that an ASF can hide in and I don't want rat poop in there either.

So, I put ASF with a lab block (yeah, I feed Mazuri 6F) in there, add the snake, and wait a while with tongs in hand for just in case. They're like "deer caught in headlights" when the snake is put in - they freeze and do not move for a long time...

I currently feed my snake right in his tub. I drop the rat in and close the tub but stay right there to listen for any sort of problem - would this procedure still work with an ASF.

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Originally Posted by L.West

I currently feed my snake right in his tub. I drop the rat in and close the tub but stay right there to listen for any sort of problem - would this procedure still work with an ASF.

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Yep.
Most people do it this way.

Ok, sounds good. I will pick one up at the reptile show this weekend and see what happens. If for some reason my snake refuses to eat the ASF and I am stuck keeping him - can I feed him the regular rat food that I buy when I keep regular rats sometimes.